Boris Johnson Quotes (119 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson: 119 quotes 0 likes

Famous Boris Johnson Quotes

“I'm backing David Cameron's campaign out of pure, cynical self-interest.”

Boris Johnson

"Conference Diary", The Independent, 5 October 2005, p. 7.
On The 2005 Conservative Leadership Contest.
2000s, 2005

“Where there are neglected opportunities we will seize on them, and we will focus on the priorities of the people of London: cutting crime, improving transport, protecting green space, delivering affordable housing, giving taxpayers value for money in every one of the 32 boroughs.”

Boris Johnson

2000s, 2008, First Speech As London Mayor (May 3, 2008)

“We can all spend an awfully long time going over lots of stuff that I’ve written over the last 30 years… all of which in my view have been taken out of context, but never mind… I’m afraid that there is such a rich thesaurus now of things that I have said that have been one way or another, through what alchemy I do not know, somehow misconstrued that it would take me too long to engage in a full global itinerary of apology to all concerned.”

Boris Johnson

in his first meeting with the press during visit by US Secretary of state John Kerry in July 2016 "Theresa May dodges question about Boris Johnson's use of racial slurs" http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/pmqs-theresa-may-boris-johnson-racist-slur-picanninies-party-kenyan-obama-dodges-question-uk-foreign-a7146126.html, Independent (July 20, 2016); "Kerry poker-faced as press takes Johnson to task for 'outright lies'" http://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/20/politics/boris-johnson-john-kerry-presser/index.html, CNN (July 20, 2016)
2010s, 2016

“As snow-jobs go, this beats the Himalayas.”

Boris Johnson

"The BBC was doing its job - bring back Gilligan", Daily Telegraph, 29 January 2004, p. 21.
Reaction to the Hutton Report.
2000s, 2004

“You shaped the office of mayor. You gave it national prominence and when London was attacked on 7 July 2005 you spoke for London.”

Boris Johnson

2000s, 2008, First Speech As London Mayor (May 3, 2008)

“Some readers will no doubt say that a devil is inside me; and though my faith is a bit like Magic FM in the Chilterns, in that the signal comes and goes, I can only hope that isn't so.”

Boris Johnson

"What's so funny about the Passion?", Daily Telegraph, 4 March 2004, p. 24.
2000s, 2004

Boris Johnson Quotes about people

“I want to thank Sian [Berry, Green Party] and Lindsey [German, Left List] and Alan [Craig, Christian Peoples Party] and Gerard [Batten, UKIP], who have sometimes joined us for hustings, but mainly I want to thank my two colleagues in the strange triumvirate who have been trundling around London's church halls and TV studios violently disputing the meaning of multiculturalism and the exact cost of conductors. On which point I think I'm going to declare victory.”

Boris Johnson

2000s, 2008, First Speech As London Mayor (May 3, 2008)

“He's lost the plot, people tell me. He's drifting rudderless in the wide Sargasso Sea of New Labour's ideological vacuum.”

Boris Johnson

"Blair dead in the water? No such luck", Daily Telegraph, 29 April 2004, p. 24.
On Tony Blair.
2000s, 2004

“I have not had an affair with Petronella. It is complete balderdash. It is an inverted pyramid of piffle. It is all completely untrue and ludicrous conjecture. I am amazed people can write this drivel.”

Boris Johnson

Simon Walters, "Boris, Petsy and a 'pyramid of piffle'", Mail on Sunday, 7 November 2004, p. 7.
Denying accusations of his having an affair with Petronella Wyatt.
2000s, 2004

“I don't see why people are so snooty about Channel 5. It has some respectable documentaries about the Second World War. It also devotes considerable airtime to investigations into lap dancing, and other related and vital subjects.”

Boris Johnson

"What has the BBC come to? Toilets, that's what", Daily Telegraph, 14 March 2002, p. 29.
2000s, 2002

“The dreadful truth is that when people come to see their MP, they have run out of better ideas.”

Boris Johnson

"What's wrong with 40 Liverpool Road?", Daily Telegraph, 18 September 2003, p. 24.
2000s, 2003

“Nor do I propose to defend the right to talk on a mobile while driving a car, though I don't believe that is necessarily any more dangerous than the many other risky things that people do with their free hands while driving - nose-picking, reading the paper, studying the A-Z, beating the children, and so on.”

Boris Johnson

"To the lady who berated me, I say: on your bike", Daily Telegraph, 1 August 2002, p. 21.
2000s, 2002

Boris Johnson Quotes about thinking

“I lost the job. Well the honest truth is that this has been embellished by, probably by me, in the sense that there were two of us who were taken on as trainees, and this was in the 80s, I think it was the late 80s, and it was him or me who was going to get the job at the end of, at the end of, eight months or nine months. It was mano-a-mano and of course it was him who got it.”

Boris Johnson

Interviewed on Desert Island Discs http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00935b6, first broadcast on 30 October 2005, about his early journalistic career working for The Times and then as Brussels correspondent for The Daily Telegraph. In fact, rather than failing to beat another trainee to win a permanent position, he was sacked for falsifying a quotation http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6901161.stm.
2000s, 2005

“Chinese cultural influence is virtually nil, and unlikely to increase… Indeed, high Chinese culture and art are almost all imitative of western forms: Chinese concert pianists are technically brilliant, but brilliant at Schubert and Rachmaninov. Chinese ballerinas dance to the scores of Diaghilev. The number of Chinese Nobel prizes won on home turf is zero, although there are of course legions of bright Chinese trying to escape to Stanford and Caltech… It is hard to think of a single Chinese sport at the Olympics, compared with umpteen invented by Britain, including ping-pong, I’ll have you know, which originated at upper-class dinner tables and was first called whiff-whaff. The Chinese have a script so fiendishly complicated that they cannot produce a proper keyboard for it.”

Boris Johnson

Have I Got Views for You, p277
2000s, 2006

“This has been a marathon election as you can tell with a record turnout and I think it has been good for politics and it has been good for London.”

Boris Johnson

2000s, 2008, First Speech As London Mayor (May 3, 2008)

“And as for Ken, Mayor Livingstone, I think you have been a very considerable public servant and a distinguished leader of this city.”

Boris Johnson

2000s, 2008, First Speech As London Mayor (May 3, 2008)

“Had it been us staging the Games, I don't think we would necessarily have done the switcheroo with the girl with the braces”

Boris Johnson

" Boris Johnson In Beijing http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2008/aug/21/boris.politicsandsport?gusrc=rss&feed=politics", The Guardian, 21 August 2008

When asked whether he had any criticisms of the Beijing Olympic Games.
2000s, 2008

“But here's old Ken - he's been crass, he's been insensitive and thuggish and brutal in his language - but I don't think actually if you read what he said, although it was extraordinary and rude, I don't think he was actually anti-Semitic.”

Boris Johnson

"Quotes of the Day", The Times, 18 February 2005, p. 2.
2000s, 2005

Boris Johnson: Trending quotes

“The only thing they've got to do is clear the dead bodies away”

Boris Johnson

Theresa May faces calls to sack Boris Johnson over Libya comments https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/oct/03/sirte-can-become-a-holiday-destination-if-it-clears-the-dead-bodies-says-johnson, in the Guardian; published October 4, 2017
2017
Context: There's a group of UK business people, wonderful guys who want to invest in. The only thing they've got to do is clear the dead bodies away and then they'll be there.

Dead

“I love tennis with a passion. I challenged Boris Becker to a match once and he said he was up for it but he never called back. I bet I could make him run around.”

Boris Johnson

Hickey, The Express, 21 March 2005.
2000s, 2005

Love , Passion

“We have a new team ready to go in to City Hall. Where there have been mistakes we will rectify them. Where there are achievements we will build on them.”

Boris Johnson

2000s, 2008, First Speech As London Mayor (May 3, 2008)

Boris Johnson Quotes

“And I want to congratulate you Brian on your great common sense and decency with which you put your case and I do hope that it is not the end of our discussions about the police.”

Boris Johnson

2000s, 2008, First Speech As London Mayor (May 3, 2008)

Hope , Sense

“Not only did I want Bush to win, but we threw the entire weight of The Spectator behind him.”

Boris Johnson

Have I Got Views for You, p272
2000s, 2006

“Labour's appalling agenda, encouraging the teaching of homosexuality in schools, and all the rest of it.”

Boris Johnson

The Spectator 15 April 2000
2000s, 2000

School

“Dark forces dragged me away from the keyboard, swirling forces of irresistible intensity and power.”

Boris Johnson

"A wise guy playing the fool to win", Sunday Times, 16 July 2000, p. 17.
While at the Daily Telegraph, explaining why his work was usually late.
2000s, 2000

“Yes, cannabis is dangerous, but no more than other perfectly legal drugs. It's time for a rethink, and the Tory party - the funkiest, most jiving party on Earth - is where it's happening.”

Boris Johnson

"No one obeys the speed limit except a motorised rickshaw", Daily Telegraph, 12 July 2001, p. 27.
2000s, 2001

Time

“My friends, as I have discovered myself, there are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters.”

Boris Johnson

" Trust me, being sacked isn't all bad http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/12/02/do0202.xml", Daily Telegraph, 2 December 2004, p. 26.
On being sacked from the Tory front bench.
2000s, 2004

“Tremendous, little short of superb. On cracking form.”

Boris Johnson

David Charter, Joanna Bale, "Tories suggest door will open for Boris Johnson to return", The Times, 15 November 2004, p. 7.
Asked how he was feeling after being sacked as Shadow Arts Minister for having misled Michael Howard.
2000s, 2004

“If we left the EU, we would end this sterile debate, and we would have to recognise that most of our problems are not caused by “Bwussels”, but by chronic British short-termism, inadequate management, sloth, low skills, a culture of easy gratification and underinvestment in both human and physical capital and infrastructure.”

Boris Johnson

Telegraph article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10052646/Quitting-the-EU-wont-solve-our-problems-says-Boris-Johnson.html (12 May 2013)
Peking university, Beijing (14 October 2013) Joint speech to students http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/14/boris-johnson-charm-offensive-china
2010s, 2013

Problem

“That is the best case for Bush; that, among other things, he liberated Iraq. It is good enough for me.”

Boris Johnson

Daily Telegraph 26 February 2004
2000s, 2004

“Look, I wouldn't trust Harriet Harman's political judgement.”

Boris Johnson

" BBC News Video Interview http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7378792.stm", BBC News, 2nd May 2008
When told the Harriet Harman (Labour Politician) thought he had won the election for London Mayor.
2008

“And I hope that everybody who loves this city will put aside party differences to try in the making of Greater London greater still. Let's get cracking tomorrow and let's have a drink tonight.”

Boris Johnson

2000s, 2008, First Speech As London Mayor (May 3, 2008)

Love , Hope , Drink

“What we hate, what we fear, is being ignored.”

Boris Johnson

On the fears of MPs.
Source: "Labour's cleaning up on the council tax", 21 April 2005, p. 24.

Hate , Fear

“I was just chucking these rocks over the garden wall, and I'd listen to this amazing crash from the greenhouse, next door, over, over in England, as everything I wrote from Brussels was having this amazing, explosive effect on the Tory Party, and it really gave me this, I suppose, rather weird sense of, of power.”

Boris Johnson

Sense

“I will work flat out from now on to earn your trust and to dispel some of the myths that have been created about me.”

Boris Johnson

2000s, 2008, First Speech As London Mayor (May 3, 2008)

“The proposed ban on incitement to “religious hatred” makes no sense unless it involves a ban on the Koran itself; and that would be pretty absurd, when you consider that the Bill's intention is to fight Islamophobia.”

Boris Johnson

Daily Telegraph 21 July 2005
2000s, 2005

Sense , Fight

“Unlike the current occupant of the White House, he has no difficulty in orally extemporising a series of grammatical English sentences, each containing a main verb.”

Boris Johnson

endorsing Barack Obama, Telegraph Column, October 21, 2008
2000s, 2008

Housing

“Howard is a dynamic performer on many levels. There you are. He sent me to Liverpool. Marvellous place. Howard was the most effective Home Secretary since Peel. Hang on, was Peel Home Secretary?”

Boris Johnson

Ben Macintyre, "'Hello, I'm your MP. Actually no, I'm your candidate. Gosh'", The Times, 19 April 2005, p. 23.
On Michael Howard.
2000s, 2005

Home

“The President is a cross-eyed Texan warmonger, unelected, inarticulate, who epitomises the arrogance of American foreign policy.”

Boris Johnson

Unsigned editorial entitled "Infantile resentment" in The Spectator, 22 November 2003, p. 7.
On George W. Bush.
Attributed

“It is vital now to see this [Brexit] moment for what it is. This is not a time to quail, it is not a crisis, nor should we see it as an excuse for wobbling or self-doubt, but it is a moment for hope and ambition for Britain. A time not to fight against the tide of history, but to take that tide at the flood, and sail on to fortune.”

Boris Johnson

During the announcement that he would not run to become Britain's prime minister. A reference to Brutus's "There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune" in Julius Caesar. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/world/europe/britain-conservative-party.html (June 30, 2016)
2010s, 2016

Hope , History , Time , Fight

“And when we have that drink together which we both so richly deserve, I hope we can discover a way in which the mayoralty can continue to benefit from your transparent love of London, a city whose energy conquered the world and which now brings the world together in one city.”

Boris Johnson

2000s, 2008, First Speech As London Mayor (May 3, 2008)

Love , World , Hope , Way

“Try as I might, I could not look at an overhead projection of a growth profit matrix, and stay conscious.”

Boris Johnson

Beth Pearson, "Has Howard got news for Boris?", The Herald (Glasgow), 13 November 2004, p. 15.
Explaining why he quit after a week as a management consultant.
2000s, 2004

“And as for those who voted for me, I know there will be many whose pencils hovered for an instant before putting an X in my box and I will work flat out to repay and to justify your confidence.”

Boris Johnson

Source: 2000s, 2008, First Speech As London Mayor (May 3, 2008)

Confidence , Box

“The Lib Dems are not just empty. They are a void within a vacuum surrounded by a vast inanition.”

Boris Johnson

"The least said about Lib Dems, the better", Daily Telegraph, 25 September 2003, p. 24.
2000s, 2003

“It was a stellar performance. I may as well give up now and make way for an older man.”

Boris Johnson

Hickey, The Express, 12 May 2004.
On his father Stanley's appearance on Have I Got News For You.
2000s, 2004

Way

“If Amsterdam or Leningrad vie for the title of Venice of the North, then Venice - what compliment is high enough? Venice, with all her civilisation and ancient beauty, Venice with her addiction to curious aquatic means of transport, yes, my friends, Venice is the Henley of the South.”

Boris Johnson

"Paying through the Doge for Europe", Daily Telegraph, 11 March 2004, p. 22.
2000s, 2004

Beauty

“Old Man Howard, that Old Man Howard, he just keeps rolling, just keeps rolling.”

Boris Johnson

Andrew Pierce, "Boris on a roll", The Times, 29 April 2005, p. 40.
When asked by The Oxford Student whether he sees anyone amongst his younger colleagues who would one day replace Howard.
2000s, 2005

“I don't see why he's any less of a candidate for the than Barack Obama.”

Boris Johnson

Source: Boris Johnson: Why Trump could deserve Nobel Peace Prize http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-44034266/boris-johnson-why-trump-could-deserve-nobel-peace-prize (7 May 2018)

“The meat in the sausage has got to be Conservative”

Boris Johnson

BBC News Interview http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8668036.stm with Jeremy Paxman, BBC News, 7 May 2010
Johnson on the possibility of a coalition after the United Kingdom general election, May 2010.
Johnson: Whatever type of Wall's sausage is contrived by this great experiment, the dominant ingredient has got to be conservatism. The meat in the sausage has got to be Conservative, I would say. With plenty of bread and other bits and pieces.
Paxman: The question is whether it's a chipolata or a Cumberland sausage, I suppose, is it?
Johnson: This is fantastic to listen to. Enough of this gastronomic metaphor!
Paxman: You started it!
Johnson: Well, I've had enough of it!
Paxman: Haven't you got a city to run?
Johnson: I have got a city to run and that's exactly the point! The government of London will carry on irrespective of the temporary difficulties in providing a national government. Thank you.
Paxman: Bye bye, Boris!
2010s, 2010

“I forgot that to rely on a train, in Blair's Britain, is to engage in a crapshoot with the devil.”

Boris Johnson

"A horse is a safer bet than the trains", Daily Telegraph, 3 July 2003, p. 22.
2000s, 2003

Training

“I can't remember what my line on drugs is. What's my line on drugs?”

Boris Johnson

"The Genelection Game", Sunday Mirror, 24 April 2005, p. 19.
During the campaign trail of the 2005 general election.
2000s, 2005

“I would like to thank first the vast multitudes who voted against me - and I have met quite a few in the last nine months, not all of them entirely polite.”

Boris Johnson

2000s, 2008, First Speech As London Mayor (May 3, 2008)

“Nothing excites compassion, in friend and foe alike, as much as the sight of you ker-splonked on the Tarmac with your propeller buried six feet under.”

Boris Johnson

“Any seat would be mad not to take him. He's a terrific chap.”

Boris Johnson

"Keeping it in the family", Daily Telegraph, 23 January 2004, p. 29.
On his father, Stanley Johnson's plans to become an MP.
2000s, 2004

Madness

“Not even Mr Blair has been able to erode the unions conviction that we all have a “right” to a minimum wage… Both the minimum wage and the Social Charter would palpably destroy jobs.”

Boris Johnson book Lend Me Your Ears

Lend Me Your Ears, p387
2000s, 2003

“Now can I ask you a question," "Why is it that we're lucky to have so many Chinese students? Is it because of the weather? Is it because we have so many French restaurants? Is it because we have so many communist bicycles?"”

Boris Johnson

2010s, 2013

Question , Weather

“Putin’s proxy army was almost certainly guilty of killing the passengers on the Malaysia Airlines jet that came down in eastern Ukraine. He has questions to answer about the death of Alexander Litvinenko, pitilessly poisoned in a London restaurant. As for his reign in Moscow, he is allegedly the linchpin of a vast post-Soviet gangster kleptocracy, and is personally said to be the richest man on the planet. Journalists who oppose him get shot. His rivals find themselves locked up. Despite looking a bit like Dobby the House Elf, he is a ruthless and manipulative tyrant.”

Boris Johnson

"Let’s deal with the Devil: we should work with Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad in Syria" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/12036184/Lets-deal-with-the-Devil-we-should-work-with-Vladimir-Putin-and-Bashar-al-Assad-in-Syria.html, The Telegraph (05 Dec 2015)
2010s, 2015

Death , Question , Housing , Personality

“I’m very attracted to it. I may be diverting from Tory party policy here, but I don’t care.”

Boris Johnson

Andrew Pierce, The Times, 30 April 2005, p. 42.
When asked about the 24 hour drinking legislation.
2000s, 2005

“They are like glistening wet otters frolicking.”

Boris Johnson

Telegraph column, 31 July 2012
On woman's beach volleyball at the 2012 Olympic Games.
2010s, 2012

“Look the point is … er, what is the point? It is a tough job but somebody has got to do it.”

Boris Johnson

Toby Helm, "Boris Johnson named shadow arts minister", Daily Telegraph, 7 May 2004, p. 12.
On being appointed Shadow Arts Minister.
2000s, 2004

“There is absolutely no one, apart from yourself, who can prevent you, in the middle of the night, from sneaking down to tidy up the edges of that hunk of cheese at the back of the fridge.”

Boris Johnson

"Face it: it's all your own fat fault", Daily Telegraph, 27 May 2004, p. 24.
On the dangers of obesity.
2000s, 2004

Night

“Something mysterious happened when Barack Obama entered the Oval Office in 2009. Something vanished from that room, and no one could quite explain why. It was a bust of Winston Churchill – the great British war time leader. It was a fine goggle-eyed object, done by the brilliant sculptor Jacob Epstein, and it had sat there for almost ten years. But on day one of the Obama administration it was returned, without ceremony, to the British embassy in Washington. No one was sure whether the President had himself been involved in the decision. Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British empire – of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender. Some said that perhaps Churchill was seen as less important than he once was. Perhaps his ideas were old-fashioned and out of date. Well, if that’s why Churchill was banished from the Oval Office, they could not have been more wrong.”

Boris Johnson

In a column for The Sun newspaper http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/7095695/UK-and-America-can-better-friends-than-ever-Mr-Obama-if-we-LEAVE-the-EU-says-Boris-Johnson.html, 22 April 2016.
2010s, 2016

War , Idea , Fashion , Decision

“I could not fail to disagree with you less.”

Boris Johnson

2004 winner of the Foot in Mouth Award from the Plain English Campaign, for his comment on the 12 December 2003 edition of Have I Got News For You http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/footinmouth.html
2000s, 2003

“I do not for one minute believe that this election shows that London has been transformed overnight into a Conservative city but I do hope it does show that the Conservatives have changed into a party that can again be trusted after 30 years with the greatest, most cosmopolitan, multi-racial generous hearted city on earth in which there are huge and growing divisions between rich and poor.”

Boris Johnson

2000s, 2008, First Speech As London Mayor (May 3, 2008)

Hope , Change , Heart

“With friends like these, who needs Yemenis?”

Boris Johnson

At a summit about the civil war in Yemen, Financial Times, 19 September 2017 https://www.ft.com/content/4060a7e0-9972-11e7-a652-cde3f882dd7b
Attributed

“And I can tell you that your courage and the sheer exuberant nerve with which you stuck it to your enemies, especially in New Labour, you have thereby earned the thanks and admiration of millions of Londoners, even if you think that they have a funny way of showing it today.”

Boris Johnson

2000s, 2008, First Speech As London Mayor (May 3, 2008)

Way , Courage , Thinking

“And that brings me to my final thank you which is of course to the people of London.”

Boris Johnson

2000s, 2008, First Speech As London Mayor (May 3, 2008)

People

“Ok, I said to myself as I sighted the bird down the end of the gun. This time, my fine feathered friend, there is no escape.”

Boris Johnson

Friends, Voters, Countrymen p59
2000s, 2001

Bird , Time

“Who, according to JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter novels, was Harry Potter's first girlfriend? Who is the first person he kisses? That's right, Cho Chang, who is a Chinese overseas student at Hogwarts school," he said, to laughs and scattered applause. "Ladies and gents I rest my case."”

Boris Johnson

2010s, 2013

School , Kiss , Change , Personality

“I advise you all very strongly - go for a run, get some exercise, and have a beautiful day.”

Boris Johnson

Valentine Low, "Shiver me timbers Boris", Evening Standard, 15 November 2004, p. 3.
Cornered by reporters asking about his affair after a morning run.
2000s, 2004

Beauty , Exercises

“In 1904, 20 per cent of journeys were made by bicycle in London. I want to see a figure like that again. If you can't turn the clock back to 1904, what's the point of being a Conservative?”

Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson on South Bank for Barclays Cycle Hire launch http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/4722, London SE1, 30 July 2010
Said during the official launch of the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme.
2010s, 2010